Laughter knows no Sorrow

by AngelShy24

Drown in Sorrow

(Note): Twilight uses a spell in this chapter, but I couldn't think of a good name or description for it; so you can use your imagination for that.

The one named Gloom finally revealed herself in Ponyville and successfully tricked Twilight and her friends in order to capture her target… Pinkie Pie. Twilight and the others tried to stop her, but they were caught off guard and were easily outmatched. Gloom got away with Pinkie Pie leaving the others to wallow in their failure.

In other business, Dinky Hooves saw almost everything, including seeing Pinkie get captured and taken away. Everything that she feared of what could happen did happen; this was something that she needed to tell Emerald Stone about right away. She ran as fast as she could to Miss Stone’s store, but once she got there and went inside…

“Miss Stone, Miss Stone; you won’t believe what has happened! Gloom is…”
… the store seemed closed and silent. The lights were out, and no one was around.

“Miss Stone; Miss Stone, are you here?!”

Dinky was wondering why Miss Stone had her store closed this early and was nowhere to be seen, “Where in Equestria could she be? I sure hope that I didn’t scare her off with the story that I told her yesterday or something.”

But knowing about her special necklace and her somewhat encounter with the dark mare, she figured that maybe she could be of help somehow.

“Maybe… maybe there’s something I can do about this.”

-----

After Gloom’s dark effect wore off on Fluttershy and Rarity, Twilight and the others helped them up on their hooves making sure that they were alright.

“I’m so sorry that we failed, girls;” said Rarity feeling upset and guilty inside, “but that mare’s power was just too overwhelming.”

“We all failed, Rarity,” lamented Twilight, “after all, Applejack, Rainbow and I were the ones who were purposely led away from here; the responsibility is not all on you two.”

“Poor Pinkie,” Fluttershy sobbed, “she must be absolutely terrified right about now.”

Despite still being a bit sore, Rainbow Dash kicked some wooden debris that was nearby out of frustration of failing to protect her friend, “That ungrateful creep; I can’t believe she got away with Pinkie! She’s not going to permanently get away with this, right Twilight?”

“Of course not, Rainbow, she just caught us off guard way too easily. I do believe we can stop her if we all work together.”

“And how is that goin’ to work?” Applejack protested, “No offense, Twilight, but did you see her immense power?! How the hay can we possibly stop her?”

Twilight had a little smirk on her face as she walked into Sugar Cube Corner and brought out a book that was bookmarked at a certain page, “Don’t worry, I was up a lot last night researching through some of my books; and unknown to Gloom, I have a spell that could possibly work against her, but… I need my friends there to help me. We’ll rescue Pinkie, you’ll see; so who’s with me?!”

“Well… you seem pretty confidant, Twiliight,” said Applejack, “I’m with ya!”

“So am I,” said Rarity

“I-I-I guess I’ll do it too,” said Fluttershy hesitantly, “… for Pinkie!”

“Well duh,” said Rainbow Dash, “it’s not like Pinkie is going to save herself! Gloom is going to regret ever messing with us… especially me!”

“Well since everypony on borad,” said Twilight, “let’s go save Pinkie!”

“Wait!!!” shouted Fluttershy suddenly, “What about the Cake Twins?”

They all turned around and saw Pumpkin and Pound sitting in the broken doorway staring at them blatantly. Twilight gave a little sigh and said, “Okay… first, let’s find these two a foal sitter.”

-----

Dinky Hooves was confused; she saw and talked with Emerald Stone just the other day mentioning about a mare that possibly was Gloom. But now that Gloom has actually made herself known, she couldn’t find her anywhere. She became quite worried that something happened to her or maybe Gloom had something to do with her disappearance; it was all so nerve-wrecking.

However, she wasn’t giving up yet; she began running all over town asking other ponies if they seen Emerald Stone anywhere.

“Have you seen Miss Stone?”

“Nope, sorry.”

“Have you seen Miss Stone?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“Please tell me that you’ve seen Miss Stone?!”

“I haven’t; why, is she missing?”

“Maybe.”

Dinky must have asked over a dozen of ponies there about Emerald Stone’s whereabouts, but none of them knew anything.

“How could she have disappeared?” she wondered to herself.

Suddenly at some point, Dinky noticed Twilight and her friends running off nearby and was quite curious of what was going on.

“Miss Sparkle!” she called out.

Twilight suddenly stopped and looked behind her to see the young filly who was calling her, “Huh? Oh, hello again, Dinky; nice to see you again.”

“Are you guys going to save Pinkie?”

“That we are,” Twilight responded with a straight smile, “we have to save her no matter what; the fate of Equestria depends on it.”

Feeling antsy and jumping up and down, Dinky asked, “Perhaps I could help: can I come with you?”

Twilight’s body tensed up a bit and she was being careful not to disappoint Dinky too much, “Um… sorry, Dinky, but this is too dangerous; have to stay here.”

“But I know that I could help,” Dinky whined a bit, “I… kinda met that mare once.”

This brought Twilight at full attention to her; she was quite surprised that she was still in one piece after crossing Gloom’s path, “You what; when did this happen?”

“Yesterday and she didn’t hurt me… well, not too much anyway. But I felt like I could get through to her.”

“Well thank Celestia you’re okay and still alive,” said Twilight with much relief, “but this mare is beyond help. She has to be stopped before all of Equestria falls to her power.”

“But still, I…”

Twilight crouched down to Dinky’s level and placed her hoof on Dinky’s should as she looked at her straight in the eyes, “No Dinky, stay here. I know you mean well, but you’ll be safer here; trust me, okay?”

Dinky lightly nodded her head and sighed, “Yes, Miss Sparkle.”

As Twilight went back to her friends who were waiting for, she looked back at Dinky and smiled sincerely, “Oh, and tell your mother I said hi! Let’s go, girls!”
Dinky just sat there as she watched Twilight and her friends race off in the distance on their rescue mission. All she could do now was wish them luck and hope for the best; but right now, she needed to try and find Emerald Stone.

-----

Pinkie couldn’t remember much after she was knocked out by Gloom’s power, but she could sense that something went wrong in her sub-conscious mind. Suddenly at this point she was starting to come to and was getting feeling in her hooves again.

“Ugh… wh-ere… where am I?” she thought to herself as she woke up. But just then, she felt her hooves being constrained in the air, “Huh, what’s this?! I-I-I can’t get out of this whatever it is, I feel like I’m stuck; what’s going on here?!”

Pinkie was totally confused; she was floating in midair being held up by a magical entity, and her surroundings looked like the inside of a cave. She definitely wasn’t feeling very cheerful at this moment.

“So… you’re finally awake,” said a familiar voice nearby within the dark shadows of the cave, “good; now I can commence with my plan to conquer over this pathetic world.”

Pinkie recognizes the figure to be Gloom, and the same creepy crow was still sitting on her shoulders keeping its creepy gaze on the pink pony. Seeing how she couldn’t escape, Pinkie was rapidly sweating feeling scared of what was going to happen to her.

“Um… excuse me, Miss Gloom;” Pinkie nervously called out to the dark mare, “Um… if I remember correctly, your plan is to engulf the world with sorrow and sadness, right?”

“What’s it to you?” Gloom retorted.

“W-well… why do you need me; what do I have that will benefit to this plan of yours?”

“The Element of Laughter,” Gloom responded in a lowly manner.

“Huh, my elelment?” Pinkie questioned.

Suddenly, Gloom had the urge to explain everything, “For years I’ve embraced this silent void of my loneness, but over time I sensed the spirit of joy and laughter begin to fill up all around me; it began to make me sick.”

Pinkie not being able to understand Gloom’s reason said with a smile, “But didn’t you know, laughter is the best medicine!”

Gloom just gave her a dark glare, “That lie is as old as time itself.”

“Hey, it’s no lie!”

“All laughter did to me was hurt, ridicule, and insult me, and it was a signification to my pain. I no longer wanted to laugh, but the world doesn’t deserve to laugh either… not after the way it treated me.”

“Come on, give it a chance,” pleaded Pinkie, “Everypony is not a big ol’ meanie pants like back in your time, every pony will be nice to you now if you give them a chance.”

But Gloom still didn’t care about what Pinkie said; it came out one ear and out the other, “Says the one who is always happy and is always laughing! I’ll see to it that no pony in all of Equestria will ever laugh again. Unfortunately even my freakishly unnatural power is not enough to cover the whole world.”

A light bulb went up in Pinkie’s head and she finally was beginning to understand, “And that’s why you need my element?”

“That is correct; with my power, I can change the element’s positive energy into the opposite energy. With that much power, no pony will be able to escape my darkness!”

Gloom was acting very sure of herself, but Pinkie was even more confident. She just looked at Gloom with a little smile and responded, “Well I hate to rain on your parade, but you’re out of luck! I’m afraid that my element isn’t here; I don’t have it. So sorry, better luck next time.”

The musky crow could tell that Gloom felt a little annoyed, so it flew up in Pinkie’s face caw right in her face to upset her… and it worked.

“Ugh, rude!”

Gloom was a bit curious of what Pinkie had said as leered at her, “Is this true?”

“That’s right,” Pinkie responded, “along with the other elements, its somewhere where you’ll never find it!”

“At Celestia’s castle in Canterlot, located in the sun locker at the highest tower point.”

Pinkie’s jaw dropped open and her eyes became really wide, “What, you know?!”

“I’ve always known where it has been, darling. However, there was no need to go through the hassle of fetching it. That’s why I have you, because technically…” She walked over to Pinkie and smirked as she placed her hoof on her chin and held her head up, “you are the Element of Laughter.”

The terrifying realization came to Pinkie as tears suddenly came from her eyes, “Oh-no.”

Gloom walked away from her then suddenly used her power to connect her energy with Pinkie’s. Pinkie was shaking as she felt something pulling on her inner soul like it was being forced out.

“H-h-hey, maybe there’s another way to go about this!” she cried out.

But Gloom didn’t listen; she looked up at her sporting a heartless expression, “Don’t scream and try not to struggle; it’ll be less painful that way.”

Suddenly out of nowhere, a beam of light shot out and collided with Gloom as she grunted in slight pain, “Augh!” And this caused her energy link with Pinkie to break, and the pink pony could relax again. The crow came over to Gloom to see if she was alright, but she was as she rose back up on her hooves and looked around in frustration.

“Who dares… challenges my power?!”

“I have!” shouted a demanding voice.

Gloom turned around to the entrance of the cave only to see Twilight and the rest Of Pinkie’s main friends standing before her presence.

“How on Equestria did you find me so fast?!” Gloom protested.

“Gee, I don’t know,” said Rainbow Dash sarcastically, “maybe it’s because of the huge swirling dark clouds emanating above the mountain of this cave from your magic; it’s kinda hard to miss.”

Not that Gloom didn’t know that fact, but it wasn’t amusing to her to be showed up and insulted in such a way.

“I’ll give you a single warning, Gloom,” said Twilight while brushing her hoof against the ground, “release Pinkie… now.”

“Oh man, I ‘m so happy to see you, girls!” shouted Pinkie with tears in her eyes.

Gloom just stood her ground while glaring at the group of ponies before her scoffing under her breath, “So… you’re all still trying to play hero; how cute… and irritating.”

The crow felt a bit irritated too and was about to swoop down towards Twilight and her friends, but then Gloom held up her hoof in its path to cease its plan, “Stand down, girl; they pose no threat to me… no matter how strong they might think they are.”

“I’m afraid that is where you are wrong,” said Twilight as she lifted a spell book from the bag on her back with her magic, “We may not understand the existence of your power, but I understand how it works.”

“What?”

“And I have a spell that will work very effectively against it.”

“Aw yeah,” shouted Rainbow Dash, “I’d listen to her if I were you.”

“Pinkie is our friend and we’re not leaving here without her!” said Rarity.

“Don’t worry Pinkie,” Fluttershy called out, “we’re going to save you!”

“I sure hope so!”

Gloom had enough of this group believing in false hopes; their friendship between them was making her furious, “Don’t be such damn fools! If I wanted to I could take you all down in an instant! My power is feared by all and none have dared to intimidate me!”

“Until now,” said Twlight as she laid the book down on the ground and began to open it, “Last chance.”

Seeing this scene, Gloom could remember how back in her time others were treating her like a major threat to the world and she chuckled while sporting a hidden sarcastic smile under her expression.

“Heh, look at all of you… planning to take me down, probably because you fear my power and think that I don’t deserve to live… just like those fools did all those years ago.”

“What?!” Applejack scoffed, “Don’t ya get it already; we’re here to stop ya so we can rescue our friend, and because we won’t allow our world to be drowned in your evil!”

Gloom was still lost in her dark past and it began boil her up inside, “No pony… no pony understands… what I have been through… what I’ve felt… and no pony will understand the deep, dark depths of my lonely sorrow; and none of you will understand either!”

Feeling a slight bit of sympathy for Gloom’s past and remembering what Dinky said, Twilight tried to reason with her, “Gloom, everypony in the world has gone through different forms of sorrow; it’s not just you! Maybe… maybe if you can give friendship a chance… our friendship, perhaps we could do anything we can to help you.”

But unfortunately it still didn’t work; Gloom glared at Twilight with so much hate and disgust in her eyes and she didn’t care for a single word she said, “It doesn’t matter; once I erase all source of laughter from this world, no pony will care about anything anymore.”

Before any of Pinkie’s friends could react, Gloom bonded her energy with Pinkie’s once again and was instantly draining the pink mare of her energy of laughter. The process felt harsh, painful, excruciating; Pinkie was screaming in constant pain as she felt her very essence leaving her body.

“Pinkie!” all of her friends shouted.

Rainbow Dash went and commanded the others, “Come on, ponies!”

Seeing the ponies’ rushing towards Gloom, the musky crow was about fly at them again; but also once again, Gloom held up her hoof in front of it, “No, don’t…”

Pinkie’s friends were rushing all around Gloom trying to confuse her and break her concentration.

“Please stop, Miss Gloom!” shouted Fluttershy one side.

“Yo, Gloom, over here!” shouted Rainbow Dash on another.

“Nah, over here!” shouted Applejack.

“Oh no, you must pay attention to me!” teased Rarity.

All of their flying and running around antics was working… slightly. Gloom was getting annoyed as some of her power was dissipating from Pinkie’s body.

“None of you fools will distract me with your horseplay; it is futile to stop me!”

“Oh yeah,” said Rainbow Dash pointing in the direction behind Gloom, “then what about that?”

“What?!”

Gloom turned around and noticed Twilight had a spell ready in her horn as it surged from the power of the book she had.

“Here goes nothing; Disperse!”

Twilight’s friends suddenly got out of the way just in time for her spell to hit its mark. The spell surrounded Gloom and engulfed her in a tight bind and caused her connection on Pinkie to dissipate. Pinkie took a huge sigh of relief; it seemed that her friends’ plan worked.

“You okay, Pinkie darling?” said Rarity.

“Heh, never better.”

Twilight felt good about this; all she needed to do now was to complete the spell and Pinkie and all of Equestria would be safe.

“I got her, girls,” Twilight shouted, “now to…”

Suddenly, Twilight felt a slight resistance in her hold on Gloom as the dark mare glared at her with pure black eyes, “You think this annoyance of a spell will stop me?!”

Just then, the spell book that Twilight was drawing her power from suddenly shot up in the air and burst into flames. Twilight groaned from the sudden action and she yelled as she saw the book overhead.
“Ahhh, the book!” she cried out.

“Oh no!” Pinkie shouted.

The spell book fell down on the ground in a pile smoldering ashes, and Twilight’s means to possibly beat Gloom burned away with it.

“None of this amuses me in the least;” said the dark mare gazing her hatred upon the other 5 mares, “you’re all too boring.”

“Can somepony please tell me of how an earth pony can be this powerful?!” shouted Applejack in frustration.

A tiny grin appeared on Gloom’s face as she dared to tell the truth, “You want to know how?”

Suddenly, all 5 ponies were suddenly surrounded by an orb of dark energy and their ability to make movement was brought to a halt.
“Whoa, what’s this?!” shouted Twilight.
Gloom then brought them all together in a huddled pile, and now they were all stuck together on the ground and could break free of Gloom’s magic.

“If you wish to know of what makes me so invincibly strong,” Gloom said in a maddening tone, “It’s not what you think. All of the pure anger, angst, sadness and pain I had endured in the past, I hated every single moment of it. But soon, fate forced me to accept who I was what I was seen as; and then, I used all of that negative energy from this world and I made it my own. I fed it to the dark power that I possess… and it’s made me strong, and I only grow stronger over time! So don’t you see I am invincible; no pony alive will be able to stop me.”

Twilight and her friends couldn’t believe what they were hearing. This mare lives and powers on pure hatred and sorrow for almost her whole life for nearly 200 years; and now she was about to unleash all of that stored emotion and cast it all over Equestria.

“Now where was I?” she said as she turned her attention back to Pinkie, “Oh yes, making your friend’s element power mine.”

Pinkie’s body was trembling as Gloom made her way back to her; and once again she connected her dark energy with Pinkie’s energy and immediately began to drain it out of her again. Pinkie could feel it again; that excruciating pain from before. Feeling the very essence of her being was causing her to scream out uncontrollably in immense pain. Her friends were crying out to her, but that’s all they could do; they couldn’t do anything more to stop Gloom.

“Pinkie, no!” Twilight cried out with tears in her eyes.

Before long, Pinkie’s screaming stopped as Gloom brought out the last bit of her Element’s essence out of her and she moaned lowly as her head hung down and her mane and tail lost its fluff. Pinkie’s friends gasped seeing the essence of Pinkie’s laughter and joy trapped in a round orb and Gloom smiled menacingly upon her success.

“Yes… yes! It’s finally done;” she shouted, “the power to change the world in my image is now mine!”

Just like that in a flash, their plan failed and Pinkie’s essence of laughter was extracted from her being. They all looked in vain as Pinkie just hung there groaning in pain and her body feeling weak and limp.

“Pinkie,” shouted Fluttershy, “say something to us… anything!”

“Show us a smile!” shouted Twilight.

Pinkie suddenly rose her head up slowly and looked upon her friends with cold dead eyes. She somehow couldn’t understand the meaning of their words and their supporting spirits were no help, “A… sm-mile? I… I-I-I c-can’t; I don’t remember… how.”

“Your friend has now lost her ability to laugh;” Gloom said with a nonchalant smirk, “not a single smile will shine upon her ever again.”

“What is there to laugh about anyway;” said Pinkie suddenly as she hung her head back down in dismay, “too many bad things that could happen in this world.”

“Pinkie, what are you saying?!” Rainbow Dash protested.

Gloom removed Pinkie from her shackles and then tossed her at her friends in which Twilight quickly caught her with her magic.

“Take her; I have no more use for her anymore.”

“You monster;” Applejack shouted in anger, “yer not goin’ to get away with this!”

Gloom was tired of them being aggressive towards her, she found it to be… an annoyance, “I do believe that I just did, peasant. Now… get out of my sight.”

Without warning, Gloom stomped her hoof on the ground and a bright light washed over the six pony friends, and they suddenly vanished from Gloom’s sight.

‘Caw’

Gloom’s crow friend flew onto her shoulder after their company disappeared and was curious of what she was going to do next.

“That’s right, my little girl,” said Gloom as she stroked the crow under its chin, “It’s time for me to finally fulfill my destiny… to drown this wretched world in sorrow.”
She then wore a smile of malice as she held up the bright orb in front of her and then it slowly turned from bright pink to dark violet, “And then all will learn to finally respect me.”

-----

Just like that, Gloom fulfilled her self-task; and then without breaking a sweat, she teleported Twilight and all of her friends out from the mountain cave that they were in and back to the grounds of Ponyville. The resident around them jumped and were very surprised when they appeared out of nowhere, but they knew that something was wrong.
“That little…” Rainbow groaned while getting up, “she just teleported us out of there back here just like that without lifting a hoof; showoff!”

Twilight was trying to get herself together too; experiencing that magical move kinda threw her and her friends for a loop, “Well I’ll give her credit… that pretty impressive for an earth pony… or whatever the heck she might be.”

Suddenly, the six of them heard a nearby voice calling out, “Twilight! Twilight!”

“Dinky?” wondered Twilight.

The young filly saw their returning and was galloping towards them as fast as she could. She had complete faith in them so she thought that everything was alright, “So… what happened; were you guys able to beat her?” However, when the others dispersed from around Pinkie, Dinky saw the terrible state that she was in, “Pinkie; you look terrible! What happened to you?!”

“We… we couldn’t stop her, Dinky;” said Twilight sadly, “she was just too strong, and now Pinkie has lost her ability to laugh.”

Dinky couldn’t believe it and she didn’t want to believe it; but it seemed that Pinkie did lose her laugh. Pinkie didn’t smile, laugh, chuckle, and not even a hint of a smirk was found on her face, nothing there but an expression of sadness and total sorrow, “What; no, that’s terrible!”
Being a dear friend of Pinkie, Dinky tried to cheer her up, “Um… come on Miss Pinkie; what can we do to make you laugh?! Um, pull some pranks; tell jokes… throw a party?!”

But nothing she did proved to be effective; Pinkie just looked at her and groaned in dismay, “No thanks, that’s just a waste of time anyway.”

Everyone gasped upon hearing the party pony say such a thing, it was incomprehensible.

“That’s just not right,” said Rarity

“No… her laughter really is gone;” Dinky whined while trying to hug Pinkie, “she’s not herself anymore! Pinkie, please come back to us!”

Everything that had transpired already just made Rainbow Dash angrier and angrier, seeing that she does get angered easily, “That Gloom is seriously going to pay for this!”

“But how; ya saw what happen,” said Applejack, “How are we goin’ to stop her now?”

“I-I-I don’t know, but we have to do something!”

Suddenly, all pony residents stopped to a halt when a loud sounded from the top of the mountain nearby the town.

“What was that?!” said Fluttershy.

Just then, they all noticed the huge plume of smoke over the mountain getting bigger and bigger; its dark, foreboding presence was causing a lot of them to stand on end.

“Wait,” wondered Twilight, “isn’t that…”

Then much to their horror, a huge stream of the dark smoke launched form the cloud and was approaching Ponyville at a fast pace.

“INCOMING!!!” shouted Rainbow dash to warn everyone.

Unfortunately, it was no good; the stream of smoke was going faster than anyone could react. Twilight and her friends knew what it was and feared what it would do, and Dinky was tearing up inside knowing that this might have been the last moment of their lives.

“It’s… too late.”

The stream soon met its mark and all of Ponyville was covered in its dark plume of smoke, and other nearby places like the Everfree Forest and Cloudsdale were engulfed as well. The spell had taken effect on impact, and no one could escape its grasp. Gloom faintly smiled upon her success and knew that she could relax; for her plan could be completed with no hinderance.

“I just love the smell of fear and sorrow of others in the air,” said Gloom solemnly, “Don’t you think so?”

‘Caw’

Author's Note:

Is this the end... is it over? Of course not, so stay tuned.